Statements

Letter to the editor: Williamson Road safety improvements a worthy pursuit

Yes, we need bike lanes. We also need to improve safety for everyone on our roadways. We should not let our feelings towards how people get around get in the way of creating a safer Roanoke for all of its residents and visitors.

I wrote a letter to the editor that was published by the Roanoke Times on October 11, 2022. You can find the published letter here: https://roanoke.com/opinion/letters/letter-williamson-road-safety-improvements-a-worthy-pursuit/article_c4f768d6-4430-11ed-b7f4-1f086b8d23ee.html

Here is the letter as I submitted it:

I am writing in response to Suzanne Osborne’s letter to the editor dated September 20, 2022.

Ms. Osborne first states that she was recently in France where she noted that “there are few bike lanes/paths – only narrow roads and crowded city streets with congested traffic, particularly in Paris….”

The mayor of Paris would almost certainly not agree that there are few bike lanes in the City of Lights. As of 2020, Paris had 650 miles of protected bike lanes, with another 125 in planning/construction. While bike lanes may not be present on all slower side streets, Paris has also made those streets safer by dropping most speed limits to about 20 mph. The mayor has committed to a “100% bikeable” city by 2026. These improvements in Paris have made the public streets much safer for all transportation users. 

Williamson Road is the most dangerous road in Roanoke, with 500 crashes and five people killed on Williamson Road in the past five years. To ignore this dangerous situation is irresponsible, and I applaud the City Council and VDOT for tackling this difficult problem head-on. 

Roanoke, which is approximately the same geographic size as Paris, has about 50 miles of bike lanes today, very close to where Paris was in 2000. With safety improvements like the one proposed for Williamson Road and the commitment of the City Council, we can begin to catch up. 

It is great that Ms. Osborne is such a safe driver. One of the great things about the proposed safety improvement for Williamson Road is that people crossing the street will only have to cross one traffic lane at a time. So a safe driver like Ms. Osborne can ensure the safety of the person walking and there is no second threat from another driver in a second lane. 

Yes, we need bike lanes. We also need to improve safety for everyone on our roadways. We should not let our feelings towards how people get around get in the way of creating a safer Roanoke for all of its residents and visitors.

PlanRoanoke icon

Comments to City Council on Plan 2040

I submitted this statement to the City Council in December 2020 after the adoption of the 2040 Comprehensive Plan. I was unable to attend the City Council meeting, which was much easier to attend when it was conducted with a Zoom and/or Facebook Live call-in option.

——- 

I want to thank the members of the City Council and the City of Roanoke for creating a comprehensive plan that prioritizes equity, health, and safety in so many areas.

Over the last 20 years Roanoke has created a great greenway system and many miles of bike lanes, and I am glad the 2040 plan continues investments in biking and walking to create complete neighborhoods. The City’s plan says that “complete neighborhood[s] [are ones] built at a human scale, [are] pedestrian friendly and bikeable, and meet the needs of people of all ages and abilities.” 

In the Livable Built Environment priorities, Policy 3 “Create accessible neighborhoods” there is an action item to create a “transportation mobility priority plan prioritizing pedestrian and bicycle accommodations.” I think a City plan for high quality pedestrian and bicycle facilities is very important so that the City can deliver the accessible and complete neighborhoods envisioned by the City’s Plan.

The importance of planning for pedestrian and bicycle facilities can be seen in Roanoke’s Greenway system, which has had three plans adopted about every ten years since 1996. Planning for the greenway system as a whole and for its constituent parts has helped make the greenway a touchstone of the City of Roanoke.

The pedestrian and bicycle plan called for in the City’s 2040 plan, should be a plan for the City of Roanoke, draw from neighborhood plans over the last 20 years, and look forward to meet the needs of Roanoke’s future. The last regional bicycle plan was adopted in 2012 and I hope a bicycle and pedestrian plan for the City is a priority in the next few years.

Large projects, like the Downtown Roanoke Urban Loop contained in the current downtown neighborhood plan, need planning to become reality. A City pedestrian and bicycle plan will also help the City compete for state and federal funds needed for such projects. 

I want to thank everyone who contributed to creating the City’s 2040 plan and look forward to the improvements promised for biking and walking, and for equity, health, and safety.

PlanRoanoke icon

Statement to City Council on Labor Day Weekend Pedestrian Deaths

The Roanoke City Council resumed in person City Council meetings and did not offer a call-in option on September 8th. I was unable to attend in person, but drafted this statement which was printed and distributed to City Council in lieu of my ability to read it.

Thank you Mayor and members of the City Council for hearing me today. In May, I spoke to the Council about a person walking who was hit and killed on Brandon Avenue. 

Today, I am speaking because three people were killed by drivers while walking in Roanoke in the last week.

  • On Thursday, September 3rd, Albert Cager Jr. was hit and killed by a driver on Salem Turnpike NW.
  • On Friday, September 4th, a man and woman were hit by a driver on Williamson Road NE. The woman died.
  • On Monday, September 7th, a woman was hit and killed by a driver on Hershberger Road NW.

When the City of Roanoke launched its “Every Corner is a Crosswalk”pedestrian safety campaign this summer, three people had already been killed while walking in the city this year. Now, that number has doubled in less than a week.

The City of Roanoke needs to do more than admonish drivers to respect the legal rights of people walking. The City of Roanoke needs to take positive action to make its streets safer – it needs to invest in safe sidewalks throughout the city, invest in street lighting, and invest in crosswalks and infrastructure to slow down drivers and give space to people walking.

This deadly week highlights the need for the City Council to provide leadership to Roanoke’s built environment and correct past mistakes that have created dangerous conditions for people walking and biking. The Department of Public Works, City Manager, and others involved in making our streets safe, or unsafe, need to know that the City Council believes traffic deaths are preventable and supports them prioritizing the safety of people over the speed of vehicles.

Whether planning for a livable built environment in the City’s next Comprehensive Plan or making decisions about corridors during repaving, the City of Roanoke needs to actively decide to prioritize the safety of people walking, biking, taking transit, and driving in order to prevent tragedies like this in the future.

I gave this statement to City Council on May 18th, 2020. Since this statement all sections of the Roanoke Greenway system are open. As of July, no announcement has been made about any action on Brandon Avenue. Tragically, one of the two people hit while walking across Brandon Avenue on May 15th has passed away. MacKenzie Beyers was 18 years old and had recently graduated from Botetourt High School. There have been at least two other pedestrians hit on Brandon Ave who suffered incapacitating injuries since 2013 according to data from the Virginia Department of Transportation.

———

Thank you Mayor and members of the City Council for hearing me today. I want to thank the City of Roanoke for listening to the many people who advocated for the reopening of the Greenway system. I hope that the phased reopening of the Lick Run Greenway, Garden City Greenway, and Tinker Creek Greenway was successful and without incidents of dangerous crowding over the weekend, and that people continue to be responsible as the Roanoke River Greenway reopens today.

Roanoke’s Greenway system is incredibly important because it is a place that is consistently safe and available for biking, walking, and other physical activity. Last Friday, unfortunately, we were reminded of how dangerous Roanoke’s roads and sidewalks can be for people outside of cars. The same day that people protested the sentence of the driver who hit Linda Pierson and left the scene, there was a person hit on Orange Avenue and two people hit on Brandon Avenue. These events highlight the dangers that the people of Roanoke face due to streets that prioritize cars and speed.

While there are many places that Roanoke can improve the safety of people who bike and walk, I’d like to talk about Brandon Avenue today. Brandon Ave was identified as a priority corridor in the 2012 Bicycle Plan adopted by the Roanoke Regional Commission and for several pedestrian improvements in the 2015 Pedestrian Plan. As a corridor the area from Main Street to Franklin Street sees multiple crashes per year, including a fatality last year and numerous serious injuries according to data from the Virginia Department of Transportation. Brandon Avenue is currently scheduled to be repaved this summer, but repaving plans have not been made public.

At the very least, the City should take the opportunity of repaving to carefully consider the corridor and how it can be made safer. Repaving alone is unlikely to result in large safety improvements, but it can set up further improvements down the road. I believe that the City should conduct a road diet or multimodal study of the corridor and allow public comments on repaving so that we can begin to make this a safe corridor rather than one that presents a barrier for people biking and walking accessing the Towers Shopping Center and threatens the safety of all people who use it.

The City is currently going through its Comprehensive Plan process and asking itself what it will look like in 20 years. With the repaving of Brandon Avenue this summer it can take a step toward a safer, more multimodal future, as its Comprehensive Plan envisions, or perpetuate the dangerous design that caters to speeding cars. I hope that the City carefully considers the opportunity presented by repaving and takes every step possible to ensure that what happens this summer is a step toward Roanoke’s future.

Statement to City Council on Brandon Avenue